Belinda Moore

May was a lovely, hectic month. Birthdays, camp, conference and more. The weather was mixed, but not too cold or drizzly yet…

AT HOME: The renos are slow and steady, but the ideas are becoming more clear - which is as important as progress. Through putting our own energy into the place it’s starting to feel very much like home.

AT WORK: I attended the conference in Brisbane in May.
Work on Education Choices has resumed, as it’s time to put together another issue already!

My involvement with Natural Parenting Magazine is uncertain, with the print magazine being discontinued. I’m still hoping to have the seasonal columns published in some form.

I’m considering becoming involved with a new magazine, Indigo.

ON THE FARM: We decided on a location for the orchard, and planted the first trees. I’m off to a nursery this weekend to purchase some more.
Our big water tank arrived, but we’re waiting on earthworks to put it into place, and the new shed to collect the water. These will increase our storage of rainwater which gravity feeds to the house. We’re happy with the existing system, but keen to increase it due to our family size, and also to avoid having to pump water at all.

We resurfaced the driveway and got loads of mulch, sand and quincan delivered. Now there are no excuses for not tidying up and beginning a lot of the little projects on the to-do list. A little bit more sunshine would help me get enthused, but if all else fails there are gumboots!

The seedlings have grown with about a 50% success rate. The gardens I’m using could have done with some more work before I rushed into planting. The leafy greens have mostly been eaten, but nothing ate the bok choy. One of the kids said, ‘No kidding!’ when I annouced this.
One bantam hen is laying one little white egg most days. The other bantams aren’t laying yet. The new chicks arrived and the laying bantam is looking out for them. They’re growing fast!
The horses were poor in May, but seem to be picking up. We wormed them and moved them to another paddock, and I’ve changed their feed. I feel like a chemist mixing up their daily ration with additional minerals, seaweed and other supplements! They are certainly providing us with a lot of manure in return for this TLC - finding volunteers to collect it is another thing entirely!
A friend mended part of the fence, and we’re trying to get some more fencing done. I’m not very skilled with barbed wire as yet! When the fences are repaired we can then put stock in the top paddock to keep the grass down. This will save a lot of time spent slashing.

The pest management plan seems to be working for us. The tobacco weed we are attempting to reduce was caught at the right time (pre-seeding) in May. Will need to mark it on the calendar as the seed has a 4 year viability in the ground.
HOME ED.: We’ve had a bit of a ‘natural learning‘ month in May.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the third Beach Camp at Rollingstone, and were rapt to welcome some new visitors again.

I have lots to think about after the conference, and we’ve some new resources bought at the Trade Fair and also from Homeschool Favourites during the month.